Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

Park Proves Himself

Chan Ho Park offered a succinct “no” when asked if he felt pressure to pitch well to keep his job last night at Citi Field.

Well, he apparently felt something.

He looked like a completely different pitcher, allowing just one hit in six scoreless innings in a 1-0 loss to the Mets. This probably keeps Park in the rotation for the immediate future because if you look at things right now, Park has the third-best ERA in the Phillies’ rotation: Brett Myers (2-2, 5.35 ERA), Jamie Moyer (3-1, 5.65 ERA), Park (0-1, 6.67 ERA), Joe Blanton (1-2, 6.84 ERA) and Cole Hamels (0-2, 7.27 ERA). Even if Park struggles in his next start, it would be hard to pull him after he pitched so well against the Mets.

But the leash on Park remains much shorter than on others in the rotation, so Park is going to be constantly fighting to keep his job with viable options (J.A. Happ, Kyle Kendrick and Carlos Carrasco) waiting in the wings.

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Citi Field? Eh. Don’t get me wrong. It is waaaaaaaaaaay nicer than Shea Stadium. But I hated Shea Stadium. Shea made the Vet look palatial. But Citi Field is very enclosed. It feels very dark. I’m not a fan of the charcoal-colored walls. I don’t know, but I guess everything in New York gets so much hype that you expect to be blown away. And I wasn’t.

I’m spoiled. I’ve been to every ballpark in the big leagues except Toronto, Anaheim and the new Yankee Stadium, so I’ve seen some good ones. Wrigley Field and Fenway Park remain my favorites. But of the new ballparks, I think Citizens Bank Park is better than Citi Field. So is PNC Park in Pittsburgh, AT&T Park in San Francisco, Petco Park in San Diego and Camden Yards in Baltimore (the first of the “new” parks). And I would say Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Minute Maid Park in Houston, Coors Field in Denver and Safeco Field in Seattle are no worse.

It’s a nice ballpark, but I wouldn’t tell anybody, “Oh, you absolutely gotta check out Citi Field if you’re in New York and you’re a baseball fan.” I would say that about PNC or AT&T or Camden Yards.

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27 Comments

Apparently, this was the same Park who was competing for a starting job in spring training. Once again, he felt the heat of competition, going up against the best pitcher in the NL and picked his game up. Time will tell if he can maintain that level of competitiveness.

What I found interesting about the Citi Field discussion is that they aren’t sure if the wall height will be an issue, and they are willing to alter it if it becomes too much of a “pitchers park.” Whatever happened to stadium character? I’d like to see more Forbes Field-style wall juts and odd angles. I don’t think the place should be altered based on statistics.

Guess Park’s job is safe! At least, for now. Santana was just too tough, tonight. Only 5 hits, between both teams. Wasn’t thrilled with the Phillies errors. Especially since one cost us the only run scored.

Okay, I’ve kept pretty qiet this year so far, letting the team get settled. After a month + of ball it’s time to make some observations. 1) park needs to be under preasure in order to pitch well. When he was fighting for the place in the roatin he was lights out. last night, while fighting to retain that place he was lights out. Someone please tell him that if he EVER gives up more then 3 runs in a game he’s delegated to the Pen for life. 2) Why aren’t we running more? We have the speed in Rollins, Shane, Utley and Werth. Where is Lopes and why isn’t he havig them run more? 3) Werth is a great player. he’s a 20/20 guy easily. However, he needs to learn to PAY ATTENTION to the game. too many times he seems out to lunch during games (remember last years playoffs) 4) Anyone who says that Charlie should have had Feliz bunt with Ibanez on 2nd is an idiot. You NEVER!!! bunt a .300+ hitter with the 8th and 9th hitters up next. While Feliz’s error lost us the game, you have to admit he’s one of, if not the best, 3rr baseman in the game defensively. Unfortunately we are spoiled because Schmidt made that play seem so easy so often. 5) Todd, your slacking. If your not careful we’re going to start calling Dave’s blog at Phila.com the Dave Zone…I’m glad you got the job at MLB.com, but how about perfoming the way you did why at the Iggy..it’s why we love reading your stuff

FIJ: Why don’t we run more? Well, as was mentioned J-Roll hasn’t been on base much and you might recall that Victorino also was off to a slow start. Plus Utley is still coming back from hip surgery. I’m sure they aren’t in any rush to have him steal too much. Give it time. It will come. As for the blog..I think the writing and quality is the same as over at the Inky. Perhaps the frequency is down a bit, but of the 3 Phils blogs I read (this one, the DN and Inky ones) this one is by far the one updated the most consistantly.

Deb and Karen thanks for teh feedback. (that typos for you karen) While Todd’s writing is the same quality as always, I’m talking abou the frequency of the posts, the bits of insider stuff we used to get and a general feeling that he’s not as into the blog this year as he was last year. On the stealing, I know there have been technical issues (as you all mentioned) but as far as I’m concerned, whenever Rollins or Vic get on, they should be going unless the pitcher has a great move or the catcher is packing a cannon. Not only does it get them into scoring posistion, but it screws up the pitcher’s concentration. Remember the game in the playoffs when (I think it was) Shane stole 2nd and danced off 2nd for Utley’s AB totally messing with the pitcher? baseball is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. The “games” help and we should be using them.
I was surprized that no one responded to the idea regarding Park, or the (non) bunt yesterday

FIB, keep in mind that Todd is also Twittering as well. But I do get the feeling he is having to do more work at MLB.com than he did at the Inky, leaving him with perhaps less time to blog? As for your Park idea, it’s not bad, but that can backfire. As for the bunt, I didn’t see the game, so i can’t comment on that. Good to see that at least MLB is being fair to everyone when it comes to this 50 game thing. Assuming Manny is telling the truth, which is hard to say, I can see how he would just accept what the Dr. gave him and think it would be ok.

While I agree with you Deb, I find it hard to believe that manny all of a sudden had such a great last half last year and first month this year. Well above his usual production. On a different note, SI has a great article at http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4145564 I can almost hear Whitey and Harry going to town with this

Danny Ozark, Phils manager from 1973-79, and their winningest, died today. Lots of good memories of him. One night, he went to take Carlton out of the game a little earlier than Steve would have liked, and Lefty just dropped the ball right at Oze’s feet. There were some legendary doozies with umpires and Ozark, too.

I’m sorry to hear about Ozark RIP. While I’ve heard he had some issues with the palyers, when I first got into baseball and the Phillies he was the manager and I loved him. Took us to the playoffs three times in a row. I know Carlton tried to have him fired the entire time he was there, including his first year (the year after Lefty went 27-10).

The Rosenthal story is great. I like how he flat out calls manny an idiot. I can excuse Rommero for not checking with MLB as it wasn’t clear at that time what he should have done, but afterwards for Manny to take anything, including asperin without checking is just plain stupidity. Perhaps the time has come for every player to piss in a jar (or give blood or DNA or whatever) after EVERY game. Yes, you read right, every player after every game. Lets get this sh*t out of the game and teach our kids you can be succesful without steroids, growth pills, coke, etc. by working hard and having a natural talant

How can the city of New York afford their two over-priced stadiums? Something tells me that New York will be begging Pres. Obama for a bail out later this year. Maybe they were built with money that would have gone toward some other public projects, which would be fine with me. Then all those Yankee and Met fans can brag by saying , “Our city may be falling apart and our teams may be lousy, but we got the most expensive stadiums in the country.” Until the new Cowboys Toilet Bowl opens!

Manny got caught with a masking agent in his blood! FEMALE hormones! What could possibly have been the reason for Taking those, unless of course if he is planning to get a sex change during the season!!!!

Todd’s blog does seem a little different from before, but I don’t think it is worse. I still think that the greatest service Todd provides is to keep the Phanbase informed, so we don’t jump on the hate or panic bandwagons. If anyone still reads Bill Conlin, you’ll know what I’m writing about. GO ZO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moyer has already given up 3 homers in 2 innings at spacious Leshea Caverns. I don’t think he’s going to finish the year in the rotation. The starting rotation needs a major makeover if the Phils are going to make the playoffs this year.

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